To recognize this, in 2017 the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania released a new flag, adding a stripe of black and brown above the traditional 6-stripe rainbow. More recently, the LGBT community has worked to become more inclusive not only of those with varied sexual orientations, but also of individuals with different races and ethnicities. The bisexual flag, designed by Michael Page in 1998 includes a wide, bright pink stripe along the top, a narrower purple stripe below, with a wide blue stripe at the bottom. With 5 stripes of equal size, this flag includes a white stripe down the center, framed by light pink stripes, with baby blue stripes along the top and bottom. Some represent specific parts of the community, such as the transgender flag, designed by Monica Helms in 1999. Just like each letter in the LGBTQIA+ rights movement was added, a wider selection of pride flags continue to emerge. While still the most visible and widely-known flag for the LGBT community, it is not the only flag. Each color represented a different positive aspect of life, and the bright colors imbued a sense of celebration.
#Original gay pride rainbow plus
Wanting to create something bright, hopeful, and proud, his original flag design had 8 colors: the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple we still see on today’s 6-stripe flag, plus hot pink and turquoise, which were eventually left off the standard flag. A year later, Gilbert Baker, a San Francisco artist, was commissioned to design the first pride flag. By 1977, San Francisco had elected the first openly gay man to public office: Harvey Milk. A decade after the Stonewall riots, it was slowly becoming more acceptable to be openly gay. In 1970s San Francisco, the gay rights movement was picking up steam. Instead, the community needed a fresh, uplifting symbol that was defined for themselves. However, many were not comfortable with this symbol, because of it’s dark history of being utilized in Nazi Germany to identify homosexuals. But where did this now-iconic symbol originate?įor much of the 20th century, the pink triangle was the most widely-used symbol for the LGBT community. This time of year, cities across the country are flying rainbow flags in celebration of pride month. Rainbow Evolution: The changing face of pride flags